How to Hire a Sitter for a Sick Child

With all this flu in our schools, working moms and dads are faced with some tough decisions when it comes to taking time off work. Some schools are closing leaving well kids home on short notice for days on end. I interviewed Expert Mommy Debbie Hipp who has over a decade of experience placing nannies and sitters. Here she offers us some useful tips and answers my questions on sick child care. How do you manage when the kids are out for 3,4, or 7 days in a row (like mine were this month?!?!)

Suzanne Tucker, aka Zen MommyIn addition to mommying to two magical girls born in 2000 and 2003 and expecting twins in Jan of 2010, Suzanne co-owns a holistic health center with her husband Shawn in St. Louis, Missouri where she practices as a physical therapist, Certified Infant Massage Instructor and health education teacher. Certified in a number of healing and life education approaches, Suzanne offers life coaching as Zen Mommy Coach and is the co-creator of the Yogi Parenting approach to positive parenting.

It’s inevitable. You’ve got a huge deadline at work and your child wakes up sick. You really can’t miss the whole day of work – but your kid is clearly too ill to go to school or daycare. What do you do?

1. Hire a babysitter – through a service who can care for your child on short notice.
2. Leave the sitter with emergency contact numbers, ginger ale, Jell-O and other “sick kid necessities.”
3. Provide instructions on any special equipment (e.g., Nebulizer, inhaler, etc.) that your child may need.
4. Be clear about medicines needed, dosages and times.
5. Work from home, if possible.
6. See if your husband can stay home with the kids while you go into the office.
7. Split the day with your husband, with each of you going into the office for a few hours and tending to your sick child for a few hours.
8. Use one of your sick days to care for your child.